WESTBROOK – The Westbrook City Council’s Finance Committee recently got some good news about the school budget, as it appears some last-minute adjustments will lower the budget’s impact on the property taxes.

Superintendent Marc Gousse presented the budget to the committee Monday, explaining that thanks to lower-than-expected insurance rates and savings realized from staff retirements, the school spending plan could be lowered by approximately $204,000. The budget had anticipated a 5 percent increase in health insurance costs, while the actual figure came in at 4 percent. Additionally, the department’s dental insurance premiums actually decreased by 1 percent and a number of teacher retirements added to the savings.

With the new figures, which must be approved by the School Committee, the total school budget will drop to $30.9 million, down from the originally proposed figure of $31.1 million, decreasing the money needed from local property taxes from $16.7 million to $16.5 million. The proposed budget represents a 0.15 percent increase in spending and a 1.16 percent increase in the amount needed from local taxes over this year’s budget of $30.8 million, according to Jeremy Ray, the school department’s director of operations.

The new reductions would lower the school budget’s impact on the local tax rate from 30 cents to 19 cents per $1,000 of valuation. That reduction would drop the overall tax increase in the budget to 10 cents, though the city administration is asking the council to establish a tax stabilization reserve that would provide additional money to keep the tax rate at the same level as this year.

Because the new figures came in after the School Committee approved the budget, the committee must approve the changes before they can be included in the final school budget.

There was some debate among School Committee members at the meeting about the reductions. Alex Stone, chairman of the School Committee’s finance panel, said that he favored keeping the extra money in the budget and using it to pay for capital improvements in the schools, something that was not included in the proposed budget.

“I think that $200,000 going back to the community is a great idea,” Stone said. “(But) I’m concerned that there is no capital improvement budget.”

School Committee Chairman Ed Symbol said that he disagreed with Stone, and that the money should go to lower the burden on Westbrook’s taxpayers.

He acknowledged that it was “scary” that there was no money in the school budget for capital improvements, but added that he thought it was more important to keep taxes as low as possible.

“It’s like any household, you do what you have to do,” Symbol said, adding that he was “confident” that when the School Committee meets on Wednesday, May 2 (at 6 p.m. in the superintendent’s office), the panel would vote to include the reductions in the school budget.

On Tuesday afternoon, Ray said that while the department was aware that the health insurance premiums were coming in at a lower-than-anticipated figure, the news about the dental insurance drop wasn’t received until the morning of April 23, which was also the final day for staff members to inform the department of their intent to retire.

“We were fortunate to have a larger number of retirements that we anticipated,” Ray said. “And you had the health insurance with a 4 percent (increase) and the dental with (a decrease).”

The late information caused a scramble at the school department as staff worked to figure out what the potential savings might be, and as Gousse explained to the council’s Finance Committee, there was no time for the School Committee to approve the new figures before his presentation that night.

The new, lower figures came as welcome news to the school department, especially in what has been a tough budget year. Gousse said that for the second year in a row, the Westbrook schools saw a reduction in state aid, with a $600,000 reduction coming this year.

In response to the cuts in state aid, the school department made some drastic cuts, eliminating 12 positions and closing Prides Corner School, a decision that Gousse said would save the district $525,000. While the decision to close the school and reconfigure the district was not done lightly, Gousse said, he believed that it was the right decision. “This model will lead to increased student achievement, I’m confident of that,” he said. “This is a good budget, it’s a responsible budget. It’s responsible to our kids and it’s responsible to our taxpayers.”

After hearing the presentation from Gousse, the committee voted unanimously, 6-0, to refer the school budget to the full City Council for approval. Council President Brendan Rielly recused himself from the vote, saying he wanted to avoid a potential conflict of interest as he does some legal work for the school department.

The City Council will hold its first vote on the combined municipal and school budget on May 7 at 7 p.m. in room 114 of Westbrook High School. A second and final vote will be held on May 14. After that, the school budget goes to the voters for approval in a referendum vote on June 12.